User blog:Pinkguy the b0ss/Mega Man X Review
Oh fuck yeah, it's that time bois. It's something you've all been waiting for (if you even read these damn posts) - it's time for my introduction to the Mega Man series. Why haven't I already played at least one game from it? I honestly couldn't tell you why, probably laziness or something Anyays, let's waste no more time and get right into it. This is Mega Man X for the SNES. As usual, I don't have much history to speak of. Basically, the Mega Man series was one of the most popular franchises at the time of its original run, starting with the first game on NES in 1987 with moderate financial success. The developer of the series, Capcom, was disappointed with the game's sales, so they decided to develop a sequel to serve as the final chance for the series. The resulting game, Mega Man 2, would go on to become a smash hit and would spawn many sequels. By the time Mega Man 6 rolled around in 1993, though, the series was running out of ideas and quickly becoming stale. The main problem was the console - for some reason, the devs stuck to the NES, which greatly limited their creativity. Of course, the NES was not a bad console by any means, it's just that its relatively weak hardware imposed limitations. In order to save their franchise from stagnation, Capcom knew they had to move on. And move on they did. They immediately began developing a new Mega Man game for the SNES, released in 1994 (in North America) - Mega Man X. Reception was overwhelmingly positive, with one publication even calling it a "near-perfect cart." This game would be so popular that it caused the franchise to boom, with sequel after sequel and spinoff after spinoff. Mega Man would go on to be one of the largest video game empires, having over 120 games in the series. Still, with all of this Mega Man, many still refer back to this game. To this day, it's highly regarded as one of the greatest Mega Man games ever made, if not one of the best games in general. So, what do I think? Do I agree with the popular opinion, or don't I? Well, as the lyrics to City Escape say, "only one way to find out." Story As with my most recent reviews (save for my upcoming Ratchet & Clank reviews), I'll try to keep story discussion to a minimum, since I don't consider it important to the quality of a game. Mega Man X isn't partcularly heavily story-focused to begin with, so I don't consider this an important topic in this case. Anyways, this game takes place years after the events of the classic series (which is comprised of Mega Man 1-7, Mega Man & Bass, and Mega Man 8-11, by the way). Fed up with his constant defeats, Dr. Wily does something to eliminate the original Mega Man, Bass, Protoman, etc. He then begins building his ultimate creation - a robot named Zero. At the same time, Dr. Light begins designing a new version of Mega Man called X, along with armor upgrades for him. X is then put into storage as Dr. Light dies. About a century later, a man named Dr. Cain is digging and uncovers the remains of X. He awakens him and uses his design to build a new line of robots called Reploids. The Reploids differ from previous robots in that they have free will. Unfortunately, several of the Reploids turn against humanity. These Reploids are labeled as "Mavericks," and a police force called the Maverick Hunters is assembled to hunt down and destroy the Mavericks. They're led Sigma, a charismatic reploid who's very powerful. Later on, a group of Reploids uncover Zero, who kills all of them and joins the Maverick Hunters alongside X. In an ironic twist, Sigma goes Maverick and essentially becomes the leader of the Mavericks. It's now the job of X to hunt down Sigma, Vile (Sigma's right hand man), and eight other Mavericks, using the upgrades left by Dr. Light. This is quite the elaborate backstory for a platforming game, but still not too complicated. For what it is, the story of Mega Man X works pretty well as a gameplay motivator, like all effective video game stories should. Unfortunately, the game doesn't have many cutscenes to establish the narrative, so a few details are left a bit ambiguous, like what Wily did to destroy the classic series cast. Sigma also has little buildup, aside from a brief mention in the intro stage and right before the final levels. Apart from this, the story of Mega Man X is as effective as it needed to be and serves is purpose well. Graphics Mega Man X is quite pleasing to the eyes. Unlike the NES games, which featured solid but clearly dated visuals, Mega Man X is colorful and features some quality visuals for an SNES game. I particularly dig the art direction, which is a perfect balance of cartoony and realistic (not unlike Sonic Adventure 2 or the DKC games). The character sprites are also very-well made; in fact, X's sprite is one of my top favorite character sprites from a 2D platformer, up there with Mario from SMW and Sonic from Sonic 3&K. Unfortunetely, some of the backgrounds do look a bit flat, and the game does have a tendency to slow down when too much stuff is onscreen, but these things don't ruin the visuals of this game. Donkey Kong Country still has the best graphics from 1994 if you ask me, but Mega Man X still has appealing graphics that have stood the test of time quite well. Soundtrack My God, the soundtrack of this game is something I've been dying to discuss for almost a year now, and I finally have my chance. Ok. Do you want me to be honest with you for a second? I think this may just be my favorite soundtrack from an SNES game. I swear, the stars aligned for this one - I can't think of a single track that I dislike. They're all brilliantly composed, are of the right length to never become repetitive, and have great instrumentation courtesy of the SNES soundchip. Not to mention that every song perfectly fits the level/scenario it plays in. Some of my favorites are... God, it's so hard to choose. But if I had to pick, I love the Intro Stage theme, Storm Eagle's stage, Armored Armadillo's stage, Flame Mammoth's stage, Sigma Stage 2, the boss themes (yes, all of them), and the Weapon Get screen theme. My personal favorite song in the game, though, is probably Boomer Kuwanger's theme. I just love the instrumentation, and the melody is infectious. Even the songs I didn't mention are all great. I don't know what else to say, this soundtrack is fucking glorious, and deserves the legendary reputation it has. There's a reason why you see so many remixes on Youtube using this game's soundfont. Gameplay Take a guess what I'm about to say. Just guess. Yep, you're right. I thoroughly enjoyed just about every second of this game. Every level, (almost) every boss fight, everything... I had a smile on my face the whole way through. Allow me to explain why. For one, the control is absolutely perfect. X feels floaty enough that you know exactly where you're going to end up, and heavy enough that he doesn't take forever to land. He is a little bit slow on his feet, but the dash upgrade (which you get early on) mitigates this, and even allows you to jump further. I guess the mapping can be a bit weird at first (jump is mapped to B, dash is on A, so it's on an upward angle given the SNES controller button layout), but after a while I got used to it, and it quickly became one of my favorite things about the game. And I haven't even mentioned the wall jump. X can cling onto walls and scale them, and all this takes is the D-pad and B button. What I love is the fact that it's so damn responsive, making it a hell of a lot of fun to use. I think this game stands tall on its mechanics alone. But that's still not it. Second, there's a bunch of hidden upgrades for you to find. You start off with a small health bar, but by collecting pink heart tanks hidden throughout the eight main levels, you can gradually grow your health bar to fill half the height of the frame. In addition, several armor pieces lay hidden within four of the levels, alongside four sub-tanks. The armor pieces (head part, chest part, arm part, and leg part) all give you different abilities (such as a more powerful shot), all coming together to form the first armor. The sub-tanks are probably the best item in the game, because they allow you to refill your health. You will have to do some slightly tedious grinding to fill them, and they get completely drained no matter what amount of health you're on, but they're still insanely useful for dangerous situations. You may also have to do some backtracking depending on the order you play the stages in, but this only takes a minute or two at most, so it doesn't really bother me. Third, the weapons. Mega Man X follows the iconic "rock-paper-scissors" boss dynamic integral to the Mega Man franchise. The concept is that you pick one boss, get his weapon upon defeating him, use his weapon on the boss that's weak to it, and so on until you destroy the eight main bosses. The weapons themselves are fun to experiment with in the stages, but I find it the most fun to use the X-buster with its powerful charge shot, using special weapons only when neccessary. I'll discuss the weakness order more in the difficulty section, but for right now, all you need to know is that I enjoy the concept of the rock-paper-scissors weakness circle. Finally, the overall level design. For a 2D platformer, this game is designed very well. Sometimes, the levels are just straight-line shooting stages with platforming downplayed a bit, but there's still enough variety and platforming here to keep me satisfied. The levels are expertly crafted, each one testing your dash and wall climbing abilities very well. My favorites include Sting Chameleon, which has X dashing through a forest, Boomer Kuwanger, in which you climb a tower high in the sky, and Storm Eagle, where you must carefully time your jumps across moving platforms above bottomless pits. The final stages are also good, if mildly annoying at times, but I'll mostly talk about those in the next section. Suffice to say, I enjoyed my romp through this game's levels, and I would argue that this is some of the best level design in a 2D platforming game. Difficulty This game isn't the hardest I've ever beaten, and is nowhere near as ball-bustingly difficult as a game like Yoshi's Island. Hell, I'd say the Donkey Kong Country trilogy and the original Sonic the Hedgehog on Sega Genesis and the first Ratchet & Clank game were harder than this. Still, Mega Man X is not an easy game, and it can be quite challenging on occasion. Like I've said in so many of these reviews, I don't mind this at all. DKC1 and DKC2 are two of my favorite sidescrollers, and Super Mario Sunshine is my favorite Mario game. I love challenge in my games, and Mega Man X is no exception. The thing that really sells it is where the challenge comes from. Unlike something like Lost Levels, which is only hard because of cheap nonsense that arbitrarily kills the player over and over due to bad level design, Mega Man X gives the player all the tools they need and keeps the level design manageable and approachable for new players while still being challenging. In addition, the boss weakness order I previously mentioned makes the game very accessible for newbies. The game also has a password system, so you don't have to clear the whole game in one sitting like the NES version of Super Mario Bros. 3 or the Genesis version of Sonic 2, for instance. I would have preferred a save feature, but it's better than nothing. Still, the game isn't perfect, and the difficulty can occasionally hiccup. Some levels are much harder than others. Spark Mandrill's stage is a good example - the large amount of enemies and various electrical hazards make it a fairly hard level, while something like Sting Chameleon is pretty easy. The same applies to the bosses - for example, Flame Mammoth, the last boss in the weakness order, is pathetically easy with his weakness. In contrast, Launch Octopus - the fourth boss in weakness order, is surprisingly tough. This doesn't ruin the game, but it is still something weird I thought I should point out. Then come the Sigma Stages. As levels, they're all enjoyable, though Sigma Stage 1 does have a vertical bit with annoying wall-mounted enemies, along with Bospider, the worst boss in the game. I hate this spider bastard with a passion, because his high damage output, ridiculously fast movement speed, and ability to puke minions out form a toxic concoction that I truly despise. I would still rather fight him than Clyde in the Caldera from Pac-Man World 2, but that doesn't make it a good boss fight. Thankfully, that's the worst it ever gets. The other bosses, including Vile from Sigma Stage 1, the wall boss from Sigma Stage 2, and the electric tank from Sigma Stage 3? Yeah, they're all fine. I also enjoy the final boss against Sigma, even if he deals an obscene amount of damage to you. If nothing else, once you beat that boss, you're on the top of the world. One thing I'm indifferent about, though, is the boss rush. Throughout the stages, you'll refight all of the eight Mavericks. What I like is that they're spread out across the stages rather than all at once, which makes it much less tedious to clear. Still, I would have preferred that the boss rush wasn't there, because the bosses are so easy at that point that it's pretty much pointless. So, all-in-all, Mega Man X features very well-designed difficulty and provides a welcome challenge. Conclusion In conclusion, what more can I really say about this one? Mega Man X is an excellent game that I had a hell of a lot of fun with. I love the mechanics, the level design, the collectibles, the clever rock-paper-scissors-based boss system, the weapons are fun to use, and the game crafts a welcome challenge. The game isn't perfect, as some bosses can be annoying and some are way too easy with their weakness, sub-tanks take a while to fill up, there is some backtracking depending on your route, and the game has a tendency to slow down. However, the game is so well-designed and fun that I find it hard to care about these flaws. If you're interested in Mega Man, this game is the perfect place to jump in. I know it's sure as hell hooked me, and I will for sure be looking further into the franchise some time, most likely the classic series, the rest of the X games (particularly X2-X4), and maybe the Zero games for GBA and the Legends games on PS1. A few years ago, I couldn't care less about Mega Man, but now, I really want to look into it. I wouldn't go so far as to call myself a full-blown fan of the series, but I sure as hell am a fan of X1. For now, though, I have a few reviews planned. I'm currently in the middle of playing the Ratchet & Clank series on PS2 (I'm a few levels into Going Commando), and I can't wait to talk about those games. Spoiler alert, I'm really enjoying those games. I'm also working on a Sonic Heroes review, which you'd better be prepared for, because that one's gonna be a doozy. I also plan to get to Kirby Super Star, Earthworm Jim, Super Castlevania IV, Super Metroid, and Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy sometime this year, but not right now. I also have a bunch of other games on my backlog that will see reviews someday, like Celeste, but that list is so fucking long at this point I'd rather not list it here. In any case, I'll see you guys next time, and I hope you enjoyed hearing my thoughts on Mega Man X. P.S. I'm not getting Mega Man X2 and Mega Man X3 cartridges for SNES, because I'm sorry, I'd rather not pay the price of a whole console for two games I may end up not liking anyways (although I expect that I will like them). Please don't murder me if I have to emulate them, because I have to lol (I don't have that kind of money) ok have a nice day Category:Blog posts